


All Bright And New

by starnymphs



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bakery, Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Domestic Bliss, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Family Feels, Family Fluff, M/M, Romantic Comedy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-23
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-08 16:33:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13462149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starnymphs/pseuds/starnymphs
Summary: Steve Rogers and his roommate, Dani, aren't exactly sure what to expect from the flower shop that's opened around the corner. But the stunningly mysterious owner, Natasha, and her business partner, Bucky, certainly make it worth the walk.





	1. Let Me Breathe

Steve hears the door to the apartment slam after a cacophony of noises from the traffic outside the balcony - screeching brakes and honking horns and all the bells and whistles that went along with it. He peers over the pages of his book when his roommate appears in the doorway, very out of breath, her cheeks flushed and her bangs plastered to her face.

“Are you dying?” he asks carefully, sounding more amused than worried even though he really was mostly just worried. “More importantly, was all that noise  _you_? What, did you run into traffic?”

Dani rolls her eyes at him, stretching a little before pulling her long reddish-brown hair into a ponytail. “I - No, of course not,” she says, too quickly. He shakes his head. “I _ran_  here to tell you that I  _finally_ talked to the lady who owns the florist’s shop on the corner. And I need your inhaler,” she panted.

“ _Dani_. No, we’ve been through this. It doesn’t work like that!”

“Steve, she takes my breath away at the best of times and I just ran like a mile!”

“It’s a fifteen minute run tops, Dee, you’re just out of shape,” he teases. He ducks away when she tosses a pillow and launches forward, reaching for the inhaler in question on the end table. He can’t help but laugh as she tries to reach around him; he reaches back, catching the plastic and eventually gets to his feet, hopping onto the couch so he can hold it over her head. “Seriously, it’s not gonna to help!”

“Steeeevie, please, let me breathe so I can talk!”

“Are you just going to tell me that she’s everything you thought she would be, or what?”

“Well, I was _going_  to tell you that there’s a cute guy working in the shop now, but if you aren’t interested, maybe I won’t.” Her lips dip into a pout, but Steve is already frozen by her words. His arm lowered just a fraction, and she jumped up, catching it from his hands. “Ha!”

But before she can use it, Steve is off the couch and rushing towards her, trying to get the inhaler back. “Dee, seriously!”

In a few moments he’s actually coughing, and Dee stops in the doorway to her bedroom, eyes wide. “Oh, my god!” she gasps, rushing over and all but throwing the inhaler at him. “That’s not fair.”

The inhaler lets out a hiss as he pushes the button, and for a moment he’s just panting, trying to catch his breath. Then, when he has it, he gasps, “... _How_? How is that not fair? I told you you didn’t need it!”

Dani just shakes her head, but bustles forward, pushing him back onto the couch. “Okay, sit. And breathe a bit. But we have to go back to the flower shop, so you can’t actually sit very long, because I _might_  have maybe accidentally-on-purpose left my purse behind.”

“...How?”

“What?”

“Did you buy anything there?”

“Of course not. I know about your allergies, you dork.”

“Then how did you leave it there? You didn’t pay for anything.”

She purses her lips at him. “Don’t be logical, Steve. This is  _love_.”

“You’ve talked to her once,” Steve points out gently. “Is she interested?”

“Well, I don’t know yet.” She lets out a sigh. “But her name is Natasha and her eyes are  _so_  pretty, and she has a little mole on her cheek --”

“--What?”

“Hey, I never noticed before. As I  _said_ , I’ve finally had a conversation with her.”

Steve stares, then shakes his head. “You’re so weird.”

She lets out a breath in a huff, then took hold of his hand. “But! There’s a cute boy, so, c’mon! He works in the shop so you can have a conversation with him.” Steve looks a little unconvinced, and she lets out a groan, dragging him towards the door. “I mean it, Steve! You’ve got to talk to him.”

“Dee, I --” He frowns when she pulls the door open, her arm still linked tightly with his. “Dani, I need _shoes_.” He can hear the impatience in every sigh that leaves her as he gets his feet into his shoes and ties them, taking his time. He isn’t really sure whether or not he believes her; in fact, in his experience, she’s been more likely to steer him  _away_  from a guy (with an insistent, “You deserve better, Stevie,” in fact) than towards him.

Eventually he can’t stall anymore, and it’s very clear that Dani isn’t going to give this up. Apparently, she’s very determined not to go back to the flower shop alone. He steps out and locks the door behind him, following her down the walk and through the parking lot into the proper road beyond it.

It’s a short walk - honestly, it was a fifteen minute walk, if you included waiting at the crosswalk. There’s literally no reason for Dani to have been so out of breath after running home from the shop… But whatever. Maybe she just ran very fast.

Soon, they find themselves outside the door. It’s a tiny little building with its front facade painted yellow, and little white awnings to match little white shutters on the windows. There’s a sign that hung in the window that simply said ‘Flowers,’ with pink and red tulips painted along the edges of the sign.  

There are flowers in the display windows, arrangements that are honestly stunning. Roses, ranunculuses, little creeping sweet peas and freesias of all colors… And there, just behind the flowers, standing at the counter, was --

Wow.

Steve glances at Dani, who is looking just as perplexed as he feels.

“You gonna go in?” He asks her gently. His eyes dart back to the window, back to the boy with dark hair and a pleasant smile and the bluest eyes he’s ever seen, tucked into a corner behind the counter, reading a book for the moment.

“...Yeah,” Dee says, but she sounds a little deflated.

“Hey, don’t worry,” he says, nudging her towards the door. “You’re just going in to get your purse. Right? It’ll be fine.” He gives her an encouraging smile, but stops short before crossing the threshold himself. He can smell the sweet perfume of the flowers inside, and it’s honestly so fresh and sweet and beautiful, and he _wants_  to go in…

But he also can’t make a fool of himself in front of that guy, whoever he is.


	2. Some Celestial Being

Dani stares at the door for a second longer, then takes a deep breath and all but runs in; Steve has a feeling that if she went any more slowly she’d lose her nerve… again. Steve himself stays stuck in the doorway, very aware that the door is open, and he really _should_ go in, but he can’t make his feet move.

The door is made out of glass, and since it isn’t blocked by flowers quite as heavily as the windows, he can watch Dani make her way to the counter. Either the shop doesn’t have a bell, or the guy at the counter was too deeply absorbed in his book to have heard it, because he jumps when he notices her, hastily putting his book aside (Steve cringes a little when he simply leaves it open spine-up on the counter, but whatever, that's not  _really_ a deal-breaker) and pushing his glasses farther up the bridge of his nose.

Steve swallows a sudden lump in his throat when he looks back through the shop,  _through the window_ , straight at him, and ducks out of view because the smile that flashes across his features in that moment (not just his mouth, but crinkling the edges of his eyes, too) is just too much. But apparently Dani had looked over her shoulder, too, and noticed he wasn’t in the shop, because before he knew it the door has been thrown open and, much like a saber-toothed tiger, a tiny Dee is facing him again, tapping her foot on the cobblestone road.

“ _Why aren’t you in there?”_ she hisses, catching his arm again with more strength than a five-foot-three anything should be able to muster. “The whole point of this was for you to go in there.”

“ _You_ left your purse there,” Steve points out in a panic. “You can totally get it back on your own. You don’t need me.”

“He’s nice, c’mooooon.” She gives another tug, and Steve catches hold of a corner of the brickwork to stand his ground. She really shouldn’t be that strong - why is she that strong?  _Vegetables_ , he reminds himself dully, which is weird, because that girl eats more carbs than an Italian village. Well, she has a bakery. Her family was totally behind the bakery. “Steve!”

He looks up, to find her staring at him expectantly - and, a little ways behind her, the man from behind the counter, with that cheerful smile on his face like some celestial being carved it there.

And his eyes. He could dive right into those pools. If he wanted.

God, he wanted to.

But Steve sniffs suddenly, a familiar tickle beginning somewhere behind his nose. Dee stars at him for a moment, not quite sure what to make of him getting lost in his own thoughts, and then her eyes widen. “Purse,” she mouths, looking mortified.

The guy with the ocean-eyes, of course, seeing none of this, clears his (obviously unaffected) throat. “You know, you can come in and look around if you want. You don’t have to --” Steve sneezes at that moment, and Dee jumps. “Bless you,” he says, unfazed, before continuing: “You don’t have to buy anything, or… or anything.”

“Well, actually, I, uh - Ihaveanallergy.” Steve says it all very quickly, feeling quite as embarrassed as Dee’s expression suggests she does. “Sorry. We’re just here for her purse.”

“And your phone number!” Dee says suddenly, turning on her heel with a fierce determination to save the day. “This is Steve, and I was in here earlier and I left my purse, and when I noticed I dragged him down here because --” The guy is staring at her like he’s never properly seen another human being in his life. “Because, well…” She trails off, faltering a little under his stare, and her eyes fall to his name tag as she casts about for something to say. “Well, James and Steve has a good ring to it.”

One second of silence.

Two seconds of silence.

“I mean - if you want to,” Steve blurts, completely without thinking, and instantly regrets it, because now this James person is looking at him, equally shocked, his bottom lip caught gently in his teeth, eyes wide, and Steve very well could just crawl into one of those gigantic terracotta flower pots and die.

Dani nods quickly. “And you’re reading _The Great Gatsby_ , which is one of Steve’s favorites.” This was not actually true; he’d read it for high school and had been the only one in the class to really ‘get’ it, but he really didn’t --

“Yeah,” James says, just as quietly as he’d spoken earlier. “Yeah, sure, you can have my number.” Somehow his smile is back and even more stellar than before, and Dani and Steve exchange a look like they simply cannot _believe_ their luck. “Let me just… Hang on a second. And you left your purse?”

They nod, just as mute and shocked as James had been a moment ago.

“Okay, let me see what I can do. I - um, don’t go anywhere.” And with that he’s stepped back into the shop, letting the door close until it catches Dani’s shoulder, just as open as it had been for their whole earlier conversation.

Steve's heart is still pounding far more than it should be as he follows the other man's trek through the shop, but then he vanishes around a corner. 


	3. Paper Flowers

Dani takes a tiny step forward, letting the door close with a snap. “I can’t believe that worked,” she says, awestruck.

“Has that ever worked before? Just asking for a phone number like that?”

“No? Exactly how many dates have you seen me go on lately?”

“Right. Sorry.”

“Shut up.” But her tone is light and teasing, and there’s a smile on her face. “For the record, you use the ‘allergies’ excuse for everything.”

“Dani, I literally am allergic to flower pollen, you know that.”

“I know that. But all’s fair in love and war, Stevie.”

“I don’t think the flowers know that. Also, are you trying to quote _Don Qui_ \--” A hand reaches out through the door, black-polished nails clutching the handle of Dani’s purse. “-- _xo_ _te_?” They both turn again, staring up the arm to the face of a redheaded woman now in the doorway. She’s smiling, though it’s much more quiet and reserved.

“Maybe,” Dee hisses, but in the next moment there’s a brightness on her face that Steve hasn’t seen in a long time. “Hi! Um, Natasha. I - That’s my - I forgot my purse.” She presses her lips together, trying to keep herself from blushing and failing at the last moment, scarlet plastered all over her cheeks and creeping down her neck. “This is my brother, Steve, I thought I would drag him down and see the shop because it’s just _so_ adorable and I work right around the corner --” Steve nudges her with his elbow as inconspicuously as he can manage, and she clears her throat. She’s rambling again. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure.” Natasha has green eyes and, as Dani had waxed poetic about earlier, a pale beauty mark on her cheek, like someone had dripped a little bit of gold while painting her complexion. Steve doesn’t exactly notice her smile widen, but he definitely sees Dani notice; gosh, that girl is smitten.

“At the bakery. Right there.” Dani points at the building, with its pale wooden benches on either side of the door. “I - I don’t know if you’ve ever been there. But that’s me.”

“I actually haven’t had much time to do very much yet,” Natasha says, apologetically. She seems like the kind of person who has a smile for every occasion: nice-to-meet-yous, thank-yous, I’m-sorrys and… Well, everything else, probably. “Between getting the shop ready to open and getting the garden set up for next season, we’ve been kind of swamped. But I’ll definitely have to go and see you.”

“Oh.” Dee’s blush intensifies, almost as red as the display in the window. Or the tulips painted on the sign over her head. “I -- Gosh. I don’t want to keep you from your work, um, but thank you very much.

“You’re not keeping me.” Natasha pauses, then opens her mouth to say something again; however, Steve sneezes, again, at precisely that moment. Both women turn and stare at him, surprised.

Well, Dani looks slightly frantic, but grateful for the opportunity to dive into her purse, hide her face, and surface again with allergy tablets in hand. “Here y’go,” she says, once again proving her ability to make any number of words into one single one when she’s nervous.

“Thanks,” Steve mumbles, dry swallowing the pill with a grimace.

“ _Prego_.”

“Daniela. English.”

“Riiiiight!” She lets out a nervous laugh, much louder than her regular one (which is loud to begin with), and turns back to Natasha. “Are you sure? I mean - you don’t stand out here very often and talk to not-even-real-customers… Do you?”

“No,” Natasha agrees lightly. “But I’m stalling.”

“Stalling?” Dani asks, confused.

“Stalling for what --?” Steve looks from the purse, to Dani, to Natasha in turn, and can’t ignore the swooping sensation in the region of his stomach when Bucky pushes his way through the door with a triumphant look on his face.

“That,” Natasha said, smiling. She straightens slightly, holding out her hand to Steve. “It was nice meeting you, Steve.” She gives his hand a firm but brief handshake, then held her hand out to Dani. When Dani took her hand, however, Natasha pulled her in for a hug, brief but friendly. “And nice to see you again.” And with that she turned back into the shop, throwing one last smile over her shoulder.

James watches her go, a little nonplussed, but then his attention is entirely fixed on Steve again, and slowly but surely all the oxygen is getting sucked out of the atmosphere. “I, uh,” He smiles nervously, adjusts his glasses again, and runs a hand through his hair to brush it back from his face all in quick succession. Which has Steve wondering - Is he nervous? Is he _more_ nervous that Steve himself? And if he _is_ , then - a simultaneously difficult and simple question - _why?!_ “I know you can’t come into the shop --”

“He just took allergy medicine,” Dani replies, but the effect is a little lost with how breathless she sounds.

“-- and probably can’t keep flowers at home, so, here.” He holds out his arm, revealing what he’d been keeping behind his back: three flowers made out of thin layers gossamer paper, sky blue, ultramarine, and indigo (and Steve can’t help but notice the palest one is almost _exactly_ the color of his eyes), each with its own sparkling little iridescent sheen.

Dani stars at them, then looks at James and stares some more. Then she turns and stares to Steve. “He’s _perfect_ ,” she announces, far, far louder than she meant to. In fact, she meant to say it entirely silently. Each one of the three of them blushes scarlet.

“I - well,” James stammers, “and also I’m in a book club, if you want, you could come by on Wednesday.” He looks at Dani, as if expecting another outburst, and relaxes significantly when she keeps her mouth shut.

Steve looks at Dee, too, blinking rapidly, and her expressions softens. “He’d love to,” she says gently. “ _Gatsby_ , right?”

Very quickly, Steve’s hand flies to his lips and then back again; much too quickly to be blowing a kiss.

“You’re welcome,” she says in a whisper, much too softly for James to hear, because at the same time, he’s nodding and saying, “Yes,” with his attention focused solely on Steve.

“So Wednesday,” Steve manages, once he’s gotten the synapses to work in his brain again. He’s clutching the flowers so tightly he can feel the little wire stems bending in his fist, but he can’t exactly seem to make his grip ease up. “When?”

“I’ll close up at seven.”

“Okay. Seven.” He smiles, and can’t help the relief when Bucky smiles back.

“I - uh… Thanks for coming by. And for leaving your purse. And, you know… Every other moment afterwards.” His smile is so bright it almost hurts, and he ruffles his hair nervously. God, that honestly only makes it all worse.

Steve nods furiously, and Dani grins back. “You are absolutely welcome,” she says, and Steve has a feeling she’s telling that to the both of them. “Well, I have baked goods to prepare for tomorrow, and someone else has to start reading a book.” She nudges Steve with her elbow, definitely as payback for when Steve had done so earlier.

“Right, of course.” His smile dazzles one more time, and then James, too, turns into the shop. “See you,” he calls over his shoulder.

He’s watching them from behind the counter when they turn and head home, that same, charming smile on his face as he eventually turns back to his book.


End file.
